


Annara

by TiredRazzberry



Series: Modern Westeros AU [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Childbirth, Established Relationship, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Gendry's surname is actually Clearwaters, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-13 23:44:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11770944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiredRazzberry/pseuds/TiredRazzberry
Summary: It wasn't till she was out of the room and Arya's irritation had simmered that her words sank in. Arya looked up at Gendry with wide eyes. "Fucking Hell." She breathed.Gendry leaned down with a grin and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Fucking Hell." He whispered back against her ear.***Arya and Gendry endure some of the hardest sixteen hours of their whole lives.





	Annara

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
> 
> A continuation of "Flight 2090 is now boarding..." and a third installment to my Westeros Modern AU series. I just wanted to do something cute and short. I hope you guys enjoy it! :)

Gendry picked up on the second ring. 

**"Arry? Everything okay?"**

"More or less." Arya answered, running a hand absently over the swell of her stomach. She stalled at her belly-button to poke at her new, strange outie for the millionth time.  _Still weird._ "Ya know, exempting the painful contractions." 

**"...Another false alarm?"**

"Not sure. But get home soon just in case." 

**"I'm heading towards check-out now. Have you been timing the contractions?"**

"I want to say... _close to ten minutes apart_ , maybe a bit more. She's moving around a lot I can tell you that much." Arya poked at her stomach, vaguely concerned her daughter might just poke back. It was like something out of a horror sci-fi flick and coming face to stretched skin with it every other day was Arya's least favorite part of the whole pregnancy thing. 

**"I'll just pick you up outside and we'll head to the hospital. Bags still by the door?"**

"Gathering dust. Let me get off here and call my folks and yours. Let them know it may be showtime soon." Arya doubted it. If she and Gendry sounded insufficiently ecstatic mixed with shit-your-pants terrified of their impending parenthood, it was because this might turn out to be their third fruitless trip to the hospital this month and they had developed a healthy cynicism towards Arya's false labors. This time, however, Arya swore she wasn't coming home from the hospital till she either had a baby in arms or Doctor Mallery scheduled her to be induced. She was sick to death of the suspense - after so many false starts it was more akin to a moratorium on motherhood.

**"Please call my mom first since she'll want to skip temple services tonight just in case. She'll be leaving right about now, I think."**

"I'll hop right on it, babe." Arya agreed. It was only fair since Lorelle was the only relative either of them had within a hundred miles - discounting Robert for many reasons and Stannis who would have been _incredibly uncomfortable_ with being numbered among the first ten people called on this happy occasion. Which was why he would be Number Eleven. 

**"Great, thanks, love you. See you in like ten minutes."**

"Ooh, just in time for the next contraction." Arya teased. 

Gendry chuckled. "Lucky me." 

They said their goodbyes all over again. Arya ended the call and jumped right onto another with Lorelle, and then her own parents. She was about to call Sansa who was hopefully in the company of Mya at the time when Gendry pulled up. The ancient garage style door to the converted warehouse lurched open on command allowing their silver-grey crossover to ease inside to its specified parking spot behind the Big Couch of the living room area. Gendry hustled out of the driver's seat with the groceries in hand, past Arya to the kitchen, and threw them into the fridge without a care for cracked eggs or their frozen TV dinners. "Ready?" He asked, vaulting over the the peninsula countertop. His eyes flitted over her and he frowned at that sullen Gendry frown. "You didn't get your shoes on yet? A jacket?" 

Arya rolled her eyes as she put her phone into the waistband of her stretchy pregnancy pants. "I don't know. Did you just throw the car and house keys into the fridge?" 

Gendry did a double-take, patting himself down the front. He accepted his blunder with a grimace. "Right, point taken." He spun on his heel to return to the kitchen and recover the keys, and while he was at it put away most of the groceries properly. Arya took her sweet time shoving on her flats and getting on her overcoat. She didn't even bother trying to button and tie it over her belly, it was a lost cause. Instead she grabbed the lighter of the two bags waiting patiently by the door. Gendry jogged over and hefted the larger bag into the backseat while Arya climbed into the passenger seat. 

Once they were both buckled in, they simply sat for a moment, taking a deep breath together.

Then, "How are you two doing?" The question was punctuated by Gendry reaching over to run his hand over Arya's belly in a little circle.

Arya reclined her seat backwards a few inches and groaned like an old curmudgeon. "I swear if this is another false alarm, she's going to be born grounded for life." She said with a smile. 

Gendry chuckled and shifted gears. "Uh oh, did ya hear that, baby? Mom's had it up here with you and your antics, so no more funny business. It's time to get this show on the road." Gendry slowly reversed out of the loft into the street and pressed the button on his phone to shut the garage door before shifting into drive and heading in the direction of the hospital. 

Lorelle met them in the hospital lobby, dressed her temple best. Gone was her dower housekeeper's ensemble, replaced by a red sheath dress and matching shoes with a shawl to defend against the early spring chill. She greeted Arya and Gendry with hugs and weepy noises. No less emotional this time as she was the first time they called her to the hospital. 

"How are you feeling?" She asked Arya. 

She was flustered by the raw emotion and tenderness in her mother-in-law's expression. "I'm fine. We're fine. Had a contraction five minutes ago in the car, not due for another for a few minutes just yet." Arya had been keeping the time using her watch while calling ahead to the hospital. Gendry refused to talk and drive while on this particular journey. 

"Oh, sweetheart." Lorelle wrapped an arm around Arya's shoulders and showed her to a nearby seat. "Take a load off. I'll fetch you a water while Gendry checks you in." 

Usually Arya would have rejected any special attention - another thing she wasn't so keen on about being pregnant; she got a lot of it - she had rejected it the first two trips to the hospital because she didn't like the idea of Lorelle who worked on her feet all day spending another minute doing so on Arya. But this was her third trip to the hospital this month, she was having the worst cramps in her entire life for the third time that month, and she wanted to see her feet again. Swollen or unswollen, it did not matter. Arya missed them, and she could stand - or rather sit - to have Lorelle get her a water this once. 

Arya was sipping on a paper cup of ice water when Gendry came around with a nurse and a wheelchair. Gendry pulled Arya to her feet and sat her in the chair just in time for the next contraction. He lent his hand for squeezing. Arya grimaced through the brief stint of pain as the nurse timed it aloud. "9...10...11...Done?" 

"Yeah," Arya sighed. She huffed when the three of them all just stood there. "Come on. We've got one slowpoke to deal with already." 

The nurse took hold of the wheelchair. "Right this way." He said to a chuckling Gendry and Lorelle. 

* * *

Room 298 was boring. A pancake batter beige room from floor tiling to the curtains to the ceiling. There was a tiny TV mounted in the corner that got basic cable but it was the middle of a weekday so nothing was on except the bijillionth episodes of bad soap operas that had been running since Arya's grandparents were kids. Nurses came and went, checking vitals and all that. Dr. Mallery showed up approximately once to chide them for hustling over too quickly. Before Arya could give him a piece of his mind, however, he added that at least this time it looked like Arya's labor was actually progressing and they'd be going home with a baby. That had been the peak of excitement for several hours. Even the contractions and their increasing frequency had grown mundane. And a nurse said Arya wouldn't be dilated for a few hours yet. 

Arya, Gendry, and his mom did all they could to pass the time till True Labor began. 

"Hey, Mom! Just wanted to call and give you a progress report...well, to be honest nothing has really changed..." 

"I am going to be a father in less than twenty-four hours, Mya. Can you please quit with the baby voice and fake weeping over me growing up?"

"Mr. Stannis, I just wanted to call in and say I might not be returning to the townhouse this evening...Well, because it looks like Arya will be having the baby...Almost definitely for real this time...I really mean it this time, sir!" 

Up to and including - _Games_.

"Are they a celebrity?" Asked Arya. 

" _Kinda_ , yeah." Gendry answered. 

"Do we know them?" Asked Lorelle. 

"Unfortunately."

Arya and Lorelle paused to think it over before Arya asked their fourth question, "Are they a massive dick?" 

"I don't think that really narrows things down." Gendry answered honestly. 

 _Some light reading_. 

"Here, I stole some children's books and home decor magazines from the waiting room." Gendry laid his bounty at the foot of Arya's hospital bed. Lorelle happily snatched up one of the magazines. 

Fresh off another contraction, sweaty and in no mood to skim casserole recipes, Arya looked Gendry in the eye and said, "I want a coloring book." 

"...On it." Gendry replied, like a good husband. 

 _More phone calls_. 

"Well, I bet you took forever to be born, too, Edric, with those ears...I swear to God if you put Robert on the line-" 

"Bella, you don't have to do that - Bella! Bella, what do you mean you're boarding right now? Bella, get off the plane!" 

"Shireen, it's Lorelle...Yes, yes, nice to speak to you again, too - listen, dear, I need a favor...Please intercept your cousin Bella at Hayford International Airport. I don't care what you do with her after that, just keep her away from Rosby General Hospital till after the baby is born...Arya and Gendry's baby, of course...Mr. Stannis didn't tell you?!"

_Online shopping._

"Do you think we bought enough onesies?" 

"Enough for the baby and the dog." Gendry grumbled tiredly, staring out the blinds into the quickly darkening hospital parking lot. 

Arya sighed and closed the tab. "Fuck it. I'm buying us comfy animal-themed slippers and a video game to play when this brat runs off to college." 

"God," Gendry breathed. "I love you." 

_Yet more phone calls._

"Hey, again, Mom...Well, _no_. Still not quite there yet...Why does that make you happy?...What do you mean you and Dad are getting on a plane?" 

_And a fair degree of pettiness._

"Sorry Robert, totally slipped my mind, I -  _Ssssshhh!_ Ah, are you - _sssh_ \- through a tunnel - _sssssshh!_ Breakin' up - _ssssssssh!_ See ya!" Gendry couldn't hang up fast enough.

"You're a terrible actor." Arya told him, smiling.

"I don't care." He replied.

Arya's laughter was rudely interrupted by a contraction. Gendry's eyes zeroed in on his watch and he timed it. He didn't flinch at the pressure Arya put on his hand. "You're up to thirty seconds." He said when it was finished. 

Arya groaned like a beached whale. How she imagined a beach whale might sound, anyways. "Feels like an eternity." 

A nurse ducked into the room. She flashed a smile before ducking down to check between Arya's legs. Arya bit back some harsh words at her whistle. She almost kicked her on ~~principle~~ instinct when she patted Arya's knee on her way up. "Looks like you're almost fully dilated. I'll get the doctor." The perky nurse announced. 

It wasn't till she was out of the room and Arya's irritation had simmered that her words sank in. Arya looked up at Gendry with wide eyes. "Fucking Hell." She breathed. 

Gendry leaned down with a grin and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Fucking Hell." He whispered back against her ear. Across the room, Lorelle was blubbering into her shawl. 

* * *

The birth certificate would simply read that Annara Clearwaters was born to Arya Stark and Gendry Clearwaters on the sixteenth day of the first month of 917 AC, weighing a little over seven pounds at a length of twenty inches, at Rosby General Hospital, yada, yada, yada. Trivia, all of it. 

Only her parents could tell you that she came into the world with the most hesitant cough of a cry. That she quieted down almost right away, the farthest thing from the little fury they'd expected. That Arya didn't need any of that first touch chemical high nonsense to love her so much she cried enough for the both of them. That Gendry was crying so hard he couldn't hold his phone right. That out in the hall, some member of the recently arrived Stark brood - _Rickon_ \- popped the cork on a bottle of sparking wine, accidentally sending the hospital into lock-down for fifteen minutes because a nurse thought it was a gunshot. That only then did little Annara let out an unholy wail, at which her mom and dad only laughed in delight.

Because for all their frustrations with false labors and a long, boring wait in a hospital room, for all their threats of grounding and daydreaming about the day they'd finally ship her off to uni and have her out of their hair - this little girl had them wrapped around her little finger. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please comment and leave kudos if you enjoyed the story.


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